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Right now Phillies have 96mil dedicated to pitching and 60 mil to hitting. So lets spend more on pitching because for some reason people think Dom Brown or JMJR are going to somehow snap out of there mediocre play and help produce some runs. I love the plan. Sign me up

But that argument assumes that there is talent on the market worth spending on. If you have $8 million to spend, why spend it on a player who is worth $5 million if you can get the $8 million value at another position. I understand the idea that we should be improving in an area of weakness instead of an area of strength, but you have to balance out how much of an improvement you'd actually be making. If you would be improving only marginally in that area of weakness, wouldn't it make sense to improve significantly in the area of strength instead?

I am obviously assuming two things: first, that Cody Ross is only a marginal improvement over Dom Brown/Darin Ruff; second, that a signing a pitcher at $8 million per year will substantially improve the rotation.

As far as the first assumption goes, I am putting a little faith in Brown and Ruff (I don't see Mayberry as anything more than a 4th outfielder). Is it wise to put so much faith in the young kids? Maybe not, but I know that Cody Ross is giving me at best .280, 20 hrs. I think both Brown and Ruf can, and likely will out-produce that. I'm not a stat person, so I don't have the metrics to back that up, but there are plenty of people here who have those numbers.

Per the second assumption, I think it's fairly obvious that any pitcher worth $8 million is going to be better than Kyle Kendrick or John Lannan. I don't think I have to go into that more.

So in conclusion, yes, if there were value to be had for $8 million at a corner outfield position, I'd be all for spending it there. I'm not trying to make excuses for Amaro's spending in the past (I really wanted Josh Willingham last offseason and the offseason before), but I would simply argue that with what's available right now, it would make more sense to spend the rest of the budget on a pitching, despite having already committed $96 million to the staff.

no way in hell will dom brown out preform Cody Ross. Ross is not only a clutch hitter but a much better defender. Ross avg a hr every 21abs last year and swisher every 22abs. And yet everyone thinks swisher is god.

Im not in love with ross but i would much rather ross over brown any day of the week.

The defense is a fair point. Dom has the better arm by far, but unless he ever figures out the route-running thing, then yeah, Ross is better defensively.

Clutch hitting is a topic that's been beaten to death and I won't go into it any more than to say that Chooch was a pretty clutch playoff hitter until 2011--those things can change year to year.

Anyone who has watched Brown play has seen that he has some major power potential. Granted, he hasn't hit many home runs, but the power is there if he figures out that part of his game.

Cody Ross's career numbers are definitely better than what Brown has shown thus far. It's the fact that Brown has a lot more upside and costs about $7.5 million less, allowing the Phils to reinvest that money in a position that might actually be worth the money, that makes me want to stay away from Ross.

Right now Phillies have 96mil dedicated to pitching and 60 mil to hitting. So lets spend more on pitching because for some reason people think Dom Brown or JMJR are going to somehow snap out of there mediocre play and help produce some runs. I love the plan. Sign me up

You are quite literally insufferable.

Originally Posted by BigLee53

there is no future anymore. its gonna take at least 5 yrs to have a decent farm system. and by that time Halladay, Lee and Rollins will be gone. Howard will hopefully be traded. Utley, if still in Philly will be a shell of his former self. so why not put all the chips on the table and win now? why not sign Ross and give us another much needed bat. this offense has been struggling since 2010, the fact that some of you are questioning a Ross signing is just insane.

if Brown and Ruf turn out to be the real deal than theres obviously a chance in the future, but right now that future looks bleak.

We already have a "decent" farm system, so I'm not sure why 5 years down the line means anything here. The farm is anywhere between 17-25 in rankings depending on who you ask. All it takes is a couple of the young guys in Rookie to Single A to have a break out years, and that could mean substantial improvement in rankings.

I wouldn't mind Ross, but this team is not built on offense anymore. You don't see an issue with A-Teams comment of Cloyd, Kendrick, Lannan and Pettibone being slated to start a substantial amount of times between them, but you somehow see our outfield as some ungodly shell. If you can sign a guy like Edwin Jackson, Marcum, or another low-risk starter for what you would sign Ross, then the money is better spent on the rotation at this point.

Signing Cody Ross doesn't win you the East either. The Nationals are superior and younger team than us, so signing an above average RF for over market value doesn't jump you over those guys. To me the "clutch" thing with him is absolute nonsense. Over a large enough sample size a guy will perform to his statistical norm especially in an individually driven sport like baseball. This team is competing for the wild card and can absolutely do so with a little bit of luck and things breaking their way. We improved our BP, filled our hole in CF, and signed a decent 3B guy to hold the fort. Another SP is a smarter investment that Ross to me.

Unless Ruf makes an unexpected impact, which I'm not totally betting on, or some of our AA-AAA pitchers make huge leaps, the farm is not impacting us regardless for at least 2 years. So decent is good enough for now until the lower level guys have time to develop. A live chat on BA (not sure on this source), had Biddle and Quinn both in the Top 100 prospects and Franco has the possibility to slip in towards the backend. Give it time and hope for a little luck on the ML level.